


her smile was a northern star

by mollivanders



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/F, Post-Canon, Romance, Tattoos, set at least a few years after the duology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 03:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13802223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: “It’s good to see you,” Nina mumbled into Inej’s neck, sending a long shiver down her spine as the hug ended. “It’s good of you to come.” She looked right at home already.But when Inej looked more closely, the haggard edges around her friend were more visible. The years since they’d parted hadn’t dimmed the loss of Matthias or her determination, and even still, Fjerda was no place for a Grisha.Reaching up, Inej cradled Nina’s cheeks in her palms and smiled as Nina’s eyes fluttered shut.“Welcome aboard,” Inej said, and led her down below by her hand.





	her smile was a northern star

**Author's Note:**

> Written for ameliasscanwells for the Holiday Gift Fic giveaway with the prompt of 'tattoos'. I finally was able to write it! I got my act together on this one for Femmeslash February but really, it should have been done months ago. I set this a few years after the duology as I quite like the idea of sea weathered captain Inej feeling lost after being on her own so long and then finding Nina again.

_The Wraith_ was a ship with clean lines weathered by the years at sea, but still sprightly as ever, quick on the foamy waves and quicker in battle. Inej trusted the ship, and her crew, as much as she’d ever trusted the Dregs. More than that, the ship was now as much a home to Inej as the rooftops of Ketterdam had ever been.  
It was still a lonely one.

Most days, when their course was set and Specht was ordering the crew about, she’d disappear to the rigging. It was a natural fit; the sturdy ropes under her feet easily held her weight and she darted from mast to mast, high above the rest of the world. It was familiar, and quiet, and hers. Everyone knew better than to disturb the captain in the ropes, and in her solitude, she kept a weather eye out for ships on the horizon. It was quiet, and peaceful, and all her own. Down below on the decks was purpose, but up high was freedom.

Still, she knew she’d become more isolated. Up in the rigging, she felt it more than usual. Specht was not Kaz, or Nina, or Jesper, or Wylan. He was her first mate, and he’d follow her lead into battle with eager delight, but he wasn’t –

A pang of emptiness filled her – was pushed quickly aside – and she scrapped at the fragments of her purpose, scanning the horizon.

_The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true._

(As true of her purpose as anything else.)

So when she got a message from Nina asking for passage around Fjerda’s coast, she didn’t hesitate. Her reply went off the same hour, quick and eager.

 _Please come_ , she wrote. _And I’ll make you waffles._

The hope that stuttered within her filled the sails, rushing to meet new life.

+

Nina came on board with a bright smile and a brighter red dress, a sleight of hand homage to her Grisha order without risking the attention of slavers. The cleverness of it made Inej’s heart pang without warning and she let Nina pull her into a warm hug to dispel it.

“It’s good to see you,” Nina mumbled into Inej’s neck, sending a long shiver down her spine as the hug ended. “It’s good of you to come.” She looked right at home already.

But when Inej looked more closely, the haggard edges around her friend were more visible. The years since they’d parted hadn’t dimmed the loss of Matthias or her determination, and even still, Fjerda was no place for a Grisha. 

Reaching up, Inej cradled Nina’s cheeks in her palms and smiled as Nina’s eyes fluttered shut.

“Welcome aboard,” Inej said, and led her down below by her hand.

+

It had only been meant as a passage between towns, fishing villages, and outcrops of cities as Nina made another journey around Fjerda. It was still too dangerous for her to venture too deep inland and with Inej’s ship at her back, Nina was able to bargain with local leaders more persuasively than otherwise.

After a few days, Inej was starting to think there was more to it than that.

“If you want to stay,” Inej said one night, “you can stay.” They were curled up in one of the port alcoves of Inej’s cabin, watching the sun dip below the waves and wondering what was beyond the horizon. From the alcove, Inej had sketched out the first dusting of stars, naming them, and caught Nina watching her with a strange expression.

“As long as you like,” she added, and stretched out her hand to cover Nina’s. The wistful edge to Nina’s smile changed as her fingers unexpectedly closed around Inej’s wrist in sudden interest, her light touch like fire on Inej’s skin. 

“You have a tattoo,” Nina said softly, pushing the fabric of Inej’s sleeve up another notch. Her thumb brushed in light circles over the marking and Inej swallowed a reply, simply nodding. Her mouth had gone dry, a whirl of emotions rising within her as Nina touched her, gently.

(It was good…to have her here.)

“A geranium,” Nina added, and frowned in confusion, her dark eyes coming up to meet Inej’s own, lingering with a question.

“My mother’s favorite,” Inej whispered. The cabin was suddenly warmer than it had even been before, and Nina could surely feel the flutter of her heartbeat under her skin. Even if she could still have meddled with Inej’s pulse on purpose, she knew she wouldn’t have.

She certainly wasn’t now.

“Your mother,” Nina said, a soft echo, and Inej nodded, pulling her sleeve halfway up her forearm, exposing the full length of the tattoo. The geranium petals spread across her wrist and the stem wrapped itself into a stylistic _G_. “I wanted a memory of her with me,” she said, and fought the well of emotion fighting to rise within her. “Of both of them. I didn’t before.”

(Before – when memories of home were a sharp wind on the tightrope.)

Perhaps Nina wouldn’t understand. Perhaps Nina, who had removed every marking from her own body, would wonder why Inej would add one to her own, after all she’d shared. Instead, turning Inej’s hand over in her own, Nina brought it up to lips, pressing a gentle kiss against Inej’s fingertips. It was a tender movement, and the most intimate one she’d ever known.

She couldn’t speak, breath caught in her lungs, and in the hollow silence that followed she could hear the nervous gallop of Nina’s heart, so very near her own. She didn’t know what to do, what to say; her own experience so opposite to all of this. Nina caught her breath – about to pull away – when Inej tightened her hand in Nina’s, and their eyes met.

It was enough.

It was the breaking of a storm at sea, a sudden downpour in summer, and the utter relief it brought with it. It was a whirlwind of hope, and life, and warmth, and suddenly Nina was kissing her, soft lips against her chapped ones, and somewhere, someone was laughing happily.

(It was her.)

Her last thought as she lost herself in Nina’s kiss was, _she tastes like waffles_.

+

“So I can stay?” Nina asked, curling her fingers in a strand of Inej’s hair that had come loose. There was at last a note of the old amusement in her voice, but longing as well. Inej looked up at Nina, barely swathed by the meager sheets on her bunk, and smiled.

“You can hunt slavers with me,” she said, and leaned over Nina, one hand on her waist. Everything about Nina was warm, from her smile down to her heart. “We can sail the seven seas, make port almost never, and you can get a tan.” With a tentative shift, she pushed Nina on her back and leaned down to kiss her again, catching Nina’s sharp exhale on her tongue. 

Nina snorted, trying and failing to pretend she was unaffected. “Can I be first mate?” she asked, her hands finding Inej’s waist as the shorter woman shifted above her. Inej frowned, missing the joke until Nina leaned up to steal a kiss from her throat. “Or maybe I can just stay here,” she murmured softly, “first mate, right here.”

Inej smiled, her eyes falling shut as Nina trailed kisses across her heart.

“You can make me waffles,” Inej said, and Nina laughed, a bright laugh that filled the whole cabin. “Every day.”

It was something, Inej hoped, she’d hear every day.

+

After freeing the latest ship of slaves they’d come across, Nina watched as Inej gave orders to the first mate, a man she knew from that second trip to Fjerda, and whose reputation preceded him. She’d just come back from the defeated ship, her hair wild and her knives in her hands. Specht’s reputation, Nina thought, would have to match Inej’s own. He took his captain’s orders with sharp precision and leapt to action, ordering the crew around as the two ships cast off from each other. The foam snapped up onto the deck, washing away the battle filth and soaking Nina’s heels, and she cast a wandering eye to the horizon.

Back to Fjerda.

She’d promised. She would have to return to that promise, someday.

That day was not today.

She never heard Inej coming but the smaller woman was standing next to her when she turned around, sheathing one of her seven knifes. That one, as Nina had come to know, was Sankt Petyr, and Inej’s favorite. Framed against the falling sun and the billowing sails, she didn’t know when she’d seen something more lovely.

“We’ll make port in two days,” Inej said, the soft husk of her voice somehow heard above the din of the ship. “Are you still staying?” There was almost a nervous note in her voice; a faint hope struggling to life. Leaning down, Nina pressed her forehead to Inej’s, thumbs brushing against her jawline as she smiled at her.

“My dearest Inej,” she said with some of her old happiness, “I’ll stay, and what’s more, I’ll make you waffles.” The look Inej gave her was warmth itself and utterly sincere. 

_More than waffles,_ Nina thought, _and more than I expected_. A home, and a real life. She’d do her best.

“I’ll take them,” Inej said, a smile brimming forth, and took her hand once more.

There was, Nina thought, more than one way to fulfill a promise.

(She’d make sure of it.)

_Finis_

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [ladytharen](http://ladytharen.tumblr.com/) over at Tumblr if you want to say hi!


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